Mothers and Turtles Together

By Ken Sugarman

The Bryn Mawr-Haverford College News, 1 October 1971

The Turtles were one of the great folk-rock groups of the mid-sixties. Although not quite as musically developed as say the Byrds, they had a talent for writing and finding songs with good melodies and adding some Beatlish harmonies. They were a 2:30 a.m. group, and at their height one of the best (its all relative). You could forget It Ain't Me Babe, You Baby, Happy Together, She'd Rather Be With Me, Elenore, and all the other biggies? Great stuff. I saw them once on Hullabaloo. They were fat and ugly but knew how to lip synch pretty well.

The Mothers of Invention were one of the great acid-raunch-experimental-satire-jazz-rock bands of the mid-sixties. Frank Zappa's wide musical (and otherwise) background and finger-at-the-establishment attitude won them far more recognition than their predecessors, the Fugs (who remained under the underground). Their concerts were so outrageous that even without any kind of airplay they sold records. Who could forget Freak Out, Absolutely Free, We're Only In It For The Money, Lumpy Gravy, Rueben and the Jets, and all the other biggies? Great stuff. I never saw them once on Hullabaloo, but I knew they were fat and ugly.

The Murtles

So it was of little surprise to me when in November of 1970 at a historic meeting of the APOU (Association To Promote Obesity and Ugliness) Howie Kaylan of the then-defunct Turtles met Frankie Zapper of the then-defunct Mothers. They decided then and there to form a band and become rock and roll stars anew. Howie got his old friend Mark Volman (another ex-Turtle) and Frank got some of the old Mothers together (Ian Underwood, Aynsley Dunbar, Jim Pons, Bob Harris, and Don Preston). The band called itself the Mothers (which Zappa had attempted to do back in 1965 but was stopped by MGM) and began touring last Spring. Recently they released a live album; its called "The Mothers, Fillmore East – June, 1971." And this, little kiddies is a review of it.

Much of the music on the album is in the same vein (no pun) as their recent studio work (i.e. Weasels Ripped My Flesh, Burnt Weeny Sandwich, and Chunga's Revenge). To me most of this work is inconsequential when one considers the potential Zappa represents. Lots of people, however, gave these disks good reviews and lots of others brought and listened to them solemnly, I suspect in a dutiful spirit akin to : "Frank Zappa is a musical genius and probably knows more about music than all of us combined" or "Now Uncle Frank's gonna sit us down again and teach us something else about that great wide world of music we don't know anything about because we've been listening to rock 'n' roll all these years."

Whereas Zappa's classical and jazz riffs were big stuff back in the sixties, however, since then a lot of other good talent has surfaced to compete with him. Miles Davis, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and even Don Van Vliet, the Zappa protege, are producing music that is far more exciting than overused Mother's riffs. The public may not be quite as ignorant or debased in its tastes as Zappa possibly thinks, and I suspect a lot of them are going to be let down by the new album if they're seeking "new frontiers in music."

Rock-Burlesque

What saves the album from mediocrity is the new burlesque trip the group has taken off on. Its roots are in Lenny Bruce, but only the combination of Howie, Mark, and Frankie could pull it off this way. The band now has the vocal depth and versatility that was always one of its biggest shortcomings. It now can treat audiences to more than just music, as meaningful dialogues and monologues unfold right before their very eyes.

The band puts down the Edgewater Motel and the Vanilla Fudge in "The MudShark," and gets into groupies, the N.Y. scene ("this is the swinginest place in New York City, no shit'') and perverted sex in "What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are?" And lest you think I do wrong to label something perverted, flip over to cut 2 on the second side, "Do You Like My New Car?" The lyrics are about knotted nylons, bamboo canes, and an electric-cooled pony harness (with fuel injection). The cut builds into "Happy Together" (which the Turtles themselves did better).

Wait Till Next Year

Anyhow, what I see here is the end of a transition period. Since Hot Rats Zappa has been devoting more time to films (Uncle Meat, etc.) and happenings than pure music. Thus we can explain the band's standstill. Now Howie and Mark have created the impetus for a new direction-rock burlesque (with musical accompaniment). For those of you who miss Mothers of Help I'm A Rock, wait for their next album, by which time they should have ironed out all loose ends present here.